Kuppanna Yagaladinni, a 40-year-old farmer with four acres of dry land holding from Gudihal village in Lingasugur taluk, is known for his hard-work. On Saturday evening, he returned home as usual after completing work in the field for the day. After having dinner at about 8.30 p.m., he, along with his eldest son Eeresh (9), slept on the podium outside his house.
His 7-year old daughter Shivamma and three-and-a-half-year old son Nagesh were sleeping inside the house. The entire village, including his house, was soaked in darkness due to power cut. His wife Renukamma, was still engaged in household chores with the light of a lamp.
On finding the oil lamp running out of fuel, she decided to fill it with kerosene without extinguishing the flame.
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She put the lamp on a raised platform inside the house and opened the lamp’s lid. Just as she began to pour kerosene into the lamp from a 5-liter can, the kerosene can caught fire forcing her drop the blazing can on the two children who were sleeping just beside her on the ground.
Hearing the screaming, Kuppanna rushed into house and tried to douse the flames. The two critically injured children and Kuppanna were immediately rushed to Lingasugur Public Hospital and then to the teaching hospital attached to Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).
“I am ready to sell my agricultural land to save my children. Please do something,” Kuppanna was, with tearful eyes, pleading from his bed at RIMS burns ward when this reporter visited on Tuesday.
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He has sustained 20 per cent burns.
According to the doctors, the chances of survival of the girl who sustained over 90 per cent burns was almost ruled out.
“Though the boy with around 45 per cent burns had chances of survival, we cannot assure anything at this stage. We are attending to the patients with utmost care,” a senior surgeon, said. The option of taking the patients to the institutes of higher excellence such as Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences in Ballari was kept open for their relatives, he added.
“Recently, Kuppanna got eight bore wells drilled, but unfortunately only one yielded an inch of water. The failure of bore wells and crop loss for two consecutive years owing to floods and then droughts have made him heavily indebted. Now, this fire tragedy has devastated the family. He doesn’t have enough money to take his children to VIMS. The district administration should come forward to help him,” Amaranna Gudihal, State secretary of Karnataka Raitha Sangha, who was from the same village, told The Hindu .